Radiography refers to a general system, or modality, for recording a radiation image from the transmission of X-rays through the body of a patient. Conventional radiography uses a film/screen combination as a capture device while digital radiography can use either a flat-panel detector (DR) or stimulable phosphor plate (CR).
Radiographic examinations are common in health-care institutions, such as hospitals or tertiary care facilities. In some situations patients are transported into special examination rooms equipped for radiography while in other situations mobile radiographic equipment is transported to the location of the patient to obtain radiographs.
Mobile radiographic equipment provides a means to capture X-Ray images of objects using a transportable system generating and projecting an X-Ray beam through an object. Some implementations include only a means for generating an X-ray beam to expose an X-ray image recording plate, whereas other systems may additionally contain a means to retrieve an image from a plate. In general, these systems may be referred to as mobile or portable X-Ray exposure and/or capture systems. It is noted that other references to these systems use terms such as portable or mobile X-Ray generators. It is intended that similar reference refers to these types of systems.
In radiography, information that accompanies an image can be useful. For example, most images are typically stored with the name of a patient, the patient's medical record identification number, the time and date of capture, the body part, the x-ray projection and an identifier to indicate the radiographic technologist that acquired the image. Many types of additional information may also accompany an image such as, but not limited to, the exposure conditions of the radiograph, what type of scatter reducing grid was used, the patient position, the x-ray equipment used or the distance from the x-ray source to the patient.
In the typical practice of mobile radiography, minimal information is recorded with a radiographic image. The radiographic technologists that acquire the images may take notes of this information, or memorize it as x-ray exams are taken, then the information is manually input into a computer system at a later time. This information may subsequently be stored in a database or electronically with digital image data. One common representation for storing this information with an image in a medical facility is to represent the image and the data in a form supported by the DICOM standard.
Devices have been employed to assist in the collection of information relating to the acquisition of an x-ray image. U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,355 (Weil), commonly assigned and incorporated by reference, describes a system for manually collecting information relating to exam techniques using preprinted bar-code charts and portable bar-code reader.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,994 (Muller) relates to management information pertaining to radiographic images, describing a cassette system with a rigidly attached memory for storing information related to an x-ray examination within a cassette.